Apple's share price closed today above $633, making the company's shares now slightly more expensive than Google's. Apple's market cap is now over $590 billion, however, nearly three times larger than Google's.

While the two competing and collaborating tech companies now have nearly identical stock prices, Apple's has appreciated 160 percent over the last two years, compared to the roughly12 percent gain Google has realized over the same period.

Apple's market cap is now larger than the combined valuations of Google, HP, Dell, RIM, Microsoft, Nokia, AMD and Motorola Mobility, with a couple billion dollars to spare.

Five years ago, Apple's market cap was just $75.8 billion, illustrating the massive effect iPhone and other iOS devices have had on building the company's revenues, earnings and therefore market valuation.

Google's stock has obviously flat lined with a Rocky Road of ups and downs. Apple's Beta is 1 and Google is 1.19. Let's see what else. Google said recently they make more revenue from ad clicks from iOS devices than they do from Android devices. That's kind of strange don't cha think?

As an Apple employee at the time, I told 3 people to buy AAPL on Thursday April 24th of 2003, 4 days before the late Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes store on Monday April 28th 2003.

The stock had dipped down to under $13 a share at that time because of rumors/fears that SJ was going to take Apple into the movie industry, thus deviating from it's core computer and technology product business model, because of his being the CEO of Pixar and reports of him meeting with exec's at Universal/Viacom as well as other MOVIE studios previously (Warner Bros., Sony, etc.).

While he WAS meeting with those people at those companies, it was to negotiate for the MUSIC content at that time, NOT the MOVIE content, much less to get into PRODUCING movie content.

My Apple ESP (Employee Stock Purchase) price at that time was just over $10 (20% discount from market value which again, was under $13).

One of the 3 people argued with me saying "Why would I buy Apple stock for $10 a share when I can buy 10 shares of (some Chinese bean stock - seriously) at only $1 a share and have 10x more shares?!"

"I'm not responsible for other people's lack of foresight, much less their ignorance." - ME, 2001

As an Apple employee at the time, I told 3 people to buy AAPL on Thursday April 24th of 2003, 4 days before the late Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes store on Monday April 28th 2003.

The stock had dipped down to under $13 a share at that time because of rumors/fears that SJ was going to take Apple into the movie industry, thus deviating from it's core computer and technology product business model, because of his being the CEO of Pixar and reports of him meeting with exec's at Universal/Viacom as well as other MOVIE studios previously (Warner Bros., Sony, etc.).

While he WAS meeting with those people at those companies, it was to negotiate for the MUSIC content at that time, NOT the MOVIE content, much less to get into PRODUCING movie content.

My Apple ESP (Employee Stock Purchase) price at that time was just over $10 (20% discount from market value which again, was under $13).

I only BELIEVED in Steve Jobs, Apple, and their business model/philosophy.

I UNDERSTOOD then why they would prevail as they have now, and FELT that windows computer manufacturers were all doomed to a mass, collective failure because they all shared the same common weak link - windows, and that is why I left Xerox as a network administrator and went to Apple to become a first generation Business Specialist in the second half of 2002.

I've always known from my personal experience in the computer industry that: no windows = no all too common and easily preventable windows problems that windows users had/are/will complained/complain about for the past (more than a) decade and send them running to the competition: Mac.

That's interesting. So today, an employee would have to pay around 500 for one share of AAPL if they still have that deal in place?

Can they turn around and sell it right away? That seems like a real quick way to profit. Is there a limit on the shares they can purchase?

I know for my company, you have to take it out of your paycheck to pay for stock and you have to keep it for 6 months. I'm sure it's similar for Apple and other companies. They aren't going to allow you to invest "outside" money at the discounted share price.

Steve Ballmer said something to the effect of, "iPhone market share is a rounding error and I like our strategy a lot." I rest my case. It's rather amazing that Apple's iPhone business is worth more than all of Microsoft.

Steve Ballmer said something to the effect of, "iPhone market share is a rounding error and I like our strategy a lot." I rest my case. It's rather amazing that Apple's iPhone business is worth more than all of Microsoft.

Awesome! If only more people appreciated how amazing this is, especially if it was predicted at the launch of the first iPhone. Everyone would have laughed in your face, including me.

keep buying. the stock is still undervalued - if you buy under $666/share and it hits $1000/share in 12 months that's an insane 50% annual ROI. [and the value of my shares will continue to climb. WHEEEEE!]

Google's stock has obviously flat lined with a Rocky Road of ups and downs. Apple's Beta is 1 and Google is 1.19. Let's see what else. Google said recently they make more revenue from ad clicks from iOS devices than they do from Android devices. That's kind of strange don't cha think?

That's the risk of making advertising your business model, instead of highly desirable hardware and software.

Apparently there are whole bunch of stupid people who think because Google's stock price is/was higher than Apple's that meant Google is/was winning. One of those stupid people is the author of this article apparently.

i'm not sure which i find more titillating: this, uhm article; the fact that appl's close today was 634.34 and that the code of federal regulations, title 32, subtitle a, chapter v, subchapter 1, part 634, subpart d, section 634.34 is regarding blood alcohol concentration standards (which ded was clearly in violation of); or that saturday, october 31, 2009, was the last time that lake mohave's elevation was 634.34 feet above sea level. quite the conundrum. quite.

i'm not sure which i find more titillating: this, uhm article; the fact that appl's close today was 634.34 and that the code of federal regulations, title 32, subtitle a, chapter v, subchapter 1, part 634, subpart d, section 634.34 is regarding blood alcohol concentration standards (which ded was clearly in violation of); or that saturday, october 31, 2009, was the last time that lake mohave's elevation was 634.34 feet above sea level. quite the conundrum. quite.

The stock got up to $634.34 in after hours trading. The article correctly states that the close price was $633.68.

i'm not sure which i find more titillating: this, uhm article; the fact that appl's close today was 634.34 and that the code of federal regulations, title 32, subtitle a, chapter v, subchapter 1, part 634, subpart d, section 634.34 is regarding blood alcohol concentration standards (which ded was clearly in violation of); or that saturday, october 31, 2009, was the last time that lake mohave's elevation was 634.34 feet above sea level. quite the conundrum. quite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregInPrague

The stock got up to $634.34 in after hours trading. The article correctly states that the close price was $633.68.

I guess what I get out from this is if I had bought an equal about of shares of Google and Apple a year ago, the Apple shares would be worth a whole lot more. Consider 100 shares of each.
4/06/2011
Google closed at 474.18 or $47418 Today? $63232 or $15,814 increase in value
Apple closed at 338.04 or $33804 Today? $63368 or $29,564 increase in value

As an Apple employee at the time, I told 3 people to buy AAPL on Thursday April 24th of 2003, 4 days before the late Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes store on Monday April 28th 2003.

The stock had dipped down to under $13 a share at that time because of rumors/fears that SJ was going to take Apple into the movie industry, thus deviating from it's core computer and technology product business model, because of his being the CEO of Pixar and reports of him meeting with exec's at Universal/Viacom as well as other MOVIE studios previously (Warner Bros., Sony, etc.).

While he WAS meeting with those people at those companies, it was to negotiate for the MUSIC content at that time, NOT the MOVIE content, much less to get into PRODUCING movie content.

My Apple ESP (Employee Stock Purchase) price at that time was just over $10 (20% discount from market value which again, was under $13).

One of the 3 people argued with me saying "Why would I buy Apple stock for $10 a share when I can buy 10 shares of (some Chinese bean stock - seriously) at only $1 a share and have 10x more shares?!"

"I'm not responsible for other people's lack of foresight, much less their ignorance." - ME, 2001

For the person arguing that this is close to insider trading, it's not.

For it to be insider trading:
1. The person would have to have access to non-public information. Since a lot of people knew about Jobs' meeting with those executives, it wasn't non-public. Similarly, if the meetings took place in a public location, then by definition simple knowledge of the meeting would not be non-public.
2. The information would have to be material. There are very few scenarios where simply knowing that two people met would be material. Simply knowing that Jobs met with Sony tells you nothing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmikeo

I guess what I get out from this is if I had bought an equal about of shares of Google and Apple a year ago, the Apple shares would be worth a whole lot more. Consider 100 shares of each.
4/06/2011
Google closed at 474.18 or $47418 Today? $63232 or $15,814 increase in value
Apple closed at 338.04 or $33804 Today? $63368 or $29,564 increase in value

And my Apple portfolio is now worth more than my Google portfolio.

That's really the key. Or, more importantly, a prediction of future gains or losses. Apple is on a very strong growth curve with modest P/E ratios. Google's P/E ratios are higher and growth rates are substantially less. Furthermore, there are plenty of potential problems in Google's future:
- Revenues from Android phones are very disappointing
- Falling ad prices
- Samsung getting into mobile advertising
- Fragmentation of Android continues (and may even be accelerating)
- Acquisition of Motorola may turn out to be an albatross
- Motorola acquisition does not appear to protect them from patent problems as they had hoped.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

That statement is EXACTLY COMPARABLE to "AAPL stock price now exceeds GOOG stock price". Hell, what about Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)? Will AAPL not be King of Wall Street until it's per-share price breaks the $120,000 mark??

That statement is EXACTLY COMPARABLE to "AAPL stock price now exceeds GOOG stock price". Hell, what about Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)? Will AAPL not be King of Wall Street until it's per-share price breaks the $120,000 mark??

Stupidest article ever, I think.

Dude, all you Apple haters and geeks and losers are pathetic...

This is a great article that I see is a milestone because this date is one of my favorites. I find this date comparable to when Steve Jobs sent the company an email about when Apple surpassed dells stock-price.

Apple deserves and has earned the stock price they have the best of the best of the best products on the market. Apple stock price is not overvalued like Google. Especially when you take into consideration revenue and profit.

So stop hating and saying dumb shit and say something positive for a change.

I know for my company, you have to take it out of your paycheck to pay for stock and you have to keep it for 6 months. I'm sure it's similar for Apple and other companies. They aren't going to allow you to invest "outside" money at the discounted share price.

Excellent points. Different companies have different rules on this. And there are also IRS and SEC rules governing ESP plans - which I cannot quote just now. At one past company, the maximum was related to your annual salary, and a loan could be taken out to purchase the shares (repaid through payroll deductions). But the loan could be paid off in full, rather than taken out of your check. But true, trading these sorts of positions is strictly controlled/forbidden. If you try to get cute with them, the tax implications can be a nightmare.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jragosta

For the person arguing that this is close to insider trading, it's not.

For it to be insider trading:
1. The person would have to have access to non-public information. Since a lot of people knew about Jobs' meeting with those executives, it wasn't non-public. Similarly, if the meetings took place in a public location, then by definition simple knowledge of the meeting would not be non-public.
2. The information would have to be material. There are very few scenarios where simply knowing that two people met would be material. Simply knowing that Jobs met with Sony tells you nothing.

That's really the key. Or, more importantly, a prediction of future gains or losses. Apple is on a very strong growth curve with modest P/E ratios. Google's P/E ratios are higher and growth rates are substantially less. Furthermore, there are plenty of potential problems in Google's future:
- Revenues from Android phones are very disappointing
- Falling ad prices
- Samsung getting into mobile advertising
- Fragmentation of Android continues (and may even be accelerating)
- Acquisition of Motorola may turn out to be an albatross
- Motorola acquisition does not appear to protect them from patent problems as they had hoped.

Excellent post! We need a :clapping: smilie on here. At least a :thumbsup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by haar

does anyone short this stock...

I'm not that brave... and I don't drink massive quantities of alcohol before I open Trade Station. So, not me. But sure, there are people who short AAPL. The recent short interest on AAPL stood at 9.87 million shares, out of a float of 931.84 million. The recent short interest on GOOG was 3.75 million shares, out of a float of 251.59 million. And for MSFT, the figure was 61.56 million, out of a float of 7.56 billion shares. For poor old RIMM, it was 60.32 million shares, out of a float of 495.53 million shares. But no matter how things look, there will always be someone willing to make a contrary bet.

At some point, I'm sure AAPL will consolidate these fast & furious gains. But shorting it is like trying to catch a burning coal. At most, I might try an options strategy weighted toward being long the put side. But that's as far as I would take being an AAPL bear these days. They keep doing the right things over & over & over. Even if I wasn't an Apple fan, I just couldn't see betting against that sort of execution anytime soon.